The present disclosure relates generally to a container system including a delivery device integral with a first container to permit delivery of a material to a fluid disposed in the first container and admixture therewith, and, in particular, to a container system including a delivery device integral with a first container to permit delivery of a material to a fluid disposed in the first container in a closed system and admixture therewith.
Intravenous (IV) delivery of medical fluids from a container or bag to a patient is a commonplace medical procedure. Oftentimes, a drug or additive must be introduced and admixed with the diluent or parenteral nutritional fluid in the container prior to administration to the patient. The introduction of the drug or additive to the bag is conventionally performed using a needle and syringe to introduce the drug or additive through a medication port of the container. Once the drug or additive is introduced, the container may be shaken to encourage mixing, after which a spike is introduced into an administration port of the bag.
Such a method presents several challenges and disadvantages. To begin, the use of needles creates the potential for needle sticks, both with respect to the healthcare professional introducing the drug or additive to the container and with respect to the bag/container itself. In addition, procedures must be followed to ensure that contaminants are not introduced into the container along with the drug or additive; for example, the medication port may be swabbed with alcohol. These further procedures add time and expense; however, failure to carry out such procedures could result in infection of the patient. Certain drugs (such as oncolytics) are highly toxic, and consequently present additional handling challenges for the healthcare professionals assigned the task of dosing and mixing these drugs in the bags prior to administration to the patient. Other drugs are stored in a lyophilized form, and must be reconstituted prior to introduction, increasing the number of steps needed to introduce the drug in the container prior to administration to the patient.
As set forth in more detail below, the present disclosure sets forth an improved assembly embodying advantageous alternatives to the conventional devices and approaches discussed above.